Boehner's highway ultimatum

House Republican leaders are set to dump the mess of a highway bill in the lap of conservatives.

In a closed-door meeting planned for Wednesday, top Republicans are going to deliver a tough but simple message: Continue to stand against the bill and you’re opposing conservative policy that will fix the flawed way Congress funds road-building and energy production. Join the team — support leadership’s plan to pass a House bill — and you can be part of the solution.

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“The Senate will pass a bill,” a House leadership aide said. “House members will have to decide whether they want to pass a better bill.”

To hear top Republicans talk about it — privately, of course — they say they’ve quietly neutralized a series of thorny provisions that formed pockets of opposition to the highway bill.

Problems with oil drilling provisions were narrowed. The ban on double-decker horse trailers — which riled up aggies across the country — is close to being improved. Same goes for roads through Oklahoma Native American land and harbor dredging. Funding mass transit will, once again, come out of the general fund.

There’s one major problem that remains: folks who don’t like the price tag, how long it will take for the bill to be paid for and who are hoping for additional deficit reduction.

And Republicans say they are willing to make more concessions. They once said that a five-year extension would be the only way to ensure certainty for job creation. Now, the leadership says it’s no longer tied to a five-year bill — like the one authored by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.).

In truth, House Republicans don’t think their bill will become law. They simply want to insert into the conversation the reforms that they’ve been longing for: more state flexibility and quicker project approval, for example. Leadership wants to strengthen their hand in negotiations with the Senate, which is working on passing its bill now.

Short of shaking loose a big pile of support — a hefty lift, most concede — House Republican leaders will wave the white flag on a massive plan and are likely to offer the Senate’s legislation — if it passes — or a clean extension of the current highway funding. Republicans have decried both options as bad deals.

House Republicans have already failed to rally around two other options: a five-year bill penned by Mica or an 18-month bill hastily arranged as a fallback measure.

“All of these different combinations and proposals have been presented to various factions in the conference and none have yielded a positive whip count,” said Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio).

Time is running out. On March 31, the current highway funding program runs out. And that would cause a massive interruption in ongoing highway projects throughout the country. Shutting down the nation’s highway programs is not an option, top Republicans say.

“If we get any further down the line, we need a clean extension,” said Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), voicing what was once unthinkable: prolonging what the party dubbed a broken highway program. “I want to see a long-term bill. We’ve gotta get construction projects going in California in a big way.”

So if you believe House Republican leadership, conservatives hold the keys to whether the entire House Republican Conference gets a win to take home to voters in November.